Plain near Auvers
The open crop plain on the plateau above Auvers-sur-Oise, stretching to a low horizon — Van Gogh's last landscape country.
Auvers-sur-Oise
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
Plain near Auvers — at a glance
- Artist
- Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
- Year
- 1890
- Movement
- Post-Impressionism
- Place
- The plateau above Auvers-sur-Oise, France
- Viewpoint
- The open crop plateau above the village — still farmland; a broad sweep, not a fixed spot
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 74 × 92 cm
- Now at
- Neue Pinakothek, Munich (related version, Belvedere, Vienna)
Overview
Plain near Auvers is one of several wide, panoramic field pictures Vincent van Gogh painted on the plateau above Auvers-sur-Oise in the last weeks of his life, in July 1890. It shows crops of different greens and golds running back in long bands to a far, low line of buildings and trees under a big sky. It is oil on canvas, about 74 by 92 cm, and it hangs in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich; a closely related version is in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna.
Where was Plain near Auvers painted?
Scholarship Above the village of Auvers-sur-Oise, north-west of Paris, a flat plateau of wheat, oats and other crops opens out — the country Van Gogh painted repeatedly in June–July 1890. The plateau is still largely open farmland today, so its character survives; these wide views take in a broad sweep of it rather than one marked spot.
What is in the painting?
Bands of green, yellow-green and gold crop run parallel to the horizon, some with rows and furrows, a few dark accents of bushes or haystacks. Far off, low roofs and a line of trees; above, a wide sky of pale blue and moving white cloud, worked in swirling strokes. There are no prominent figures — the subject is the open land itself.
Look closely
The banded crops
Strip after strip of green, yellow-green and gold field runs parallel to the horizon.
The far village
Low roofs and a line of trees mark the edge of the plateau in the distance.
The swirling sky
A wide sky of pale blue and curling white cloud fills the top.
The directional strokes
Each band of field is worked in its own rhythm of brushmark.
Analysis
Composition and technique
Horizontal bands of crop under a broad restless sky, painted in fast directional strokes.
Scholarship Van Gogh keeps the design almost entirely horizontal — strip after strip of field to a low horizon — and animates it with the direction of the brushwork, each band worked in its own rhythm, the sky in curling white. The wide format spreads the plain out flat before the viewer.
History & provenance
The Munich version is in the Neue Pinakothek; the related picture is in the Belvedere, Vienna.
Sources
- Neue Pinakothek, Munich / Belvedere, Vienna — collection entries for Vincent van Gogh, ‘Plain near Auvers’ (1890)
- ‘Vincent van Gogh: The Letters’ (Van Gogh Museum) — Auvers, 1890
Related paintings
More by Vincent van Gogh
Café Terrace at Night
The Church at Auvers
Starry Night Over the Rhone
Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin
Also connected to Auvers-sur-Oise
The Church at Auvers
